Today’s links of interest:

• TW joins suit over Cablevision DVR
  Apparently, the storage of files on the server instead of the client makes this DVR too close to a Video on Demand service for several content providers. What do they want? Money, of course. The money that Cablevision would be saving with this plan.
• Brian Eno Reunites With Roxy Music (For Real)
  Don’t get excited: it was only for a couple of days. Some people might even be saying "Brian Eno was in Roxy Music?"
• Chicago Tribune Releases Results of Ad Insert Audit
  98.7 percent of all Sunday ad inserts reached subscribers undamaged. The audit did not count how many inserts were immediately thrown away by readers anxious to find the comics.
• Making the IPod More Sensitive
  Actually, my iPod is too sensitive. It crys during most Pogues songs.

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Once upon a time, the TV networks gave a rats ass about Saturday nights. It almost seems apocryphal, but there was a fabled season long ago that had this Saturday night lineup: All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show. Three solid hours of comedy all-timers.

Slow-forward about 35 years, and what do we have on Saturday nights? As Al Swearengen might say, a huge bag of shit. Sports. Reality. Magazines. Not a single scripted comedy or drama. Saturday night has become a major TV casualty of the overabundance of entertainment choices, and the networks aren’t even bothering to address it.

But isn’t there *anything* they could do? Maybe. But it would involve taking a gamble on some programming concepts that they’ve been slow to embrace, and actually taking advantage of what I will dub “The Spinal Tap Paradox.”

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Dear Lopy:

Signed,
Waiting To Burn

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Today’s links of interest:

• Can Superman Be Saved?
  Apparently not, according to Michael Warren, writing in that major bastion of film comment, the Miami Poetry Review. He believes that nothing will ever top Richard Donner’s 1978 film, which he obviously saw when he was 7 or 8, and never quite got over.
• Emerging from the wreckage
  More fun in the new world, also a way to work Lost into today’s daily posts.
• The Bat Segundo Show #42
  The future is aluminum.
• Online advertising spend forecast to outstrip national newspapers
  At this point, noted only because the !@#$ website makes you go through a "commercial" to get to the story. Meaning, they’re buying the hype of their headline.

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After a delightful weekend away from the keyboard, I’d planned to return, refreshed and ready to talk about something other than publishing. But even as I was shopping and cooking and pretending to clean, something kept nagging at me. It became more insistent as I parked myself in my the backyard yesterday, book in hand.

When it comes to new media, it’s not paper-versus-bytes argument. For those who have a “passion for paper”, as Inside Higher Ed’s Alex Golub does, there is no issue. Except that of the cost of paper increasing while the cost of bytes decreases, but I think we’ll still be at the very affordable level for the foreseeable future.

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Today’s links of interest:

• Middle class goes broadband as price falls
  Finally, we will fulfill our nation’s dream: a chicken in every pot and broadband in every room!
• From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts
  Despite this article, it’s pretty amazing how one of the single most indispensable sites on the Web — a future That’s What I Like — has pretty much stayed under the radar for so long.
• I Like to Watch
  Heather Havrilesky looks back that the television season that was and declares it good.
• DubaiCityGuide.com is number one site in Google for Dubai related searches
  Here’s some useful information for the next time you head out to Dubai.
• Now, shopping carts come with video
  From the Focusing on the Wrong Problem Dept: instead of installing video in shopping carts, how about ensuring that all of the wheels are working properly?
• Comedians love the president
  At least somebody still does.

While you were trying to figure out exactly the hell was going on with that Lost finale, here’s what we were looking at:

• That’s What I Like: O’Reilly Media’s Safari Bookshelf - Kirk likes how O’Reilly migrated their essential technical books seemlessly into the eBook space.

• Publishing Versus The Net Generation - What that the rest of the publishing world could learn from O’Reilly’s success instead of fighting the inevitable.

• Copyright And The Artistic Process - Kassia wades into the continuing struggle between artists recontextualizing existing art to create new works and the copyright holders of said existing art.
• Why Not The NiPod? - It is, of course, entirely possible that the two greatest advertisers of our age will use their combined muscle to make the Nike+iPod Sports Kit the must-have item of Summer ‘06. But I doubt it.
• The RIAA Is “Feeling Pretty Good” - Next up for the RIAA: suing a fetus for “future intent to download copyrighted music.”
• That’s What I Like: The Lightwedge - I’m really still amazed at how simple it is, and wonder why it took so long for somebody to come up with it.
• Lopetop Theater - Series One, Episode The First - Lopy is excited to be the emcee of our latest feature, and hopes that you’ll think of her as the Ed Sullivan of the 21st century.

Tonight on Lopetop Theater . . .

• We check in with our close personal friend Lucia Pamela (may she rest in peace) for a rare live performance of her stone cold classic “In the Year 2000.” It’s like she had a crystal ball.
• Agent Rod Brickman defies the odds and save copyright from evil-doers. But who will win?
• The original incarnation of Television performs a blistering version of “Foxhole”.
• In our feature presentation, Heat Vision and Jack, featuring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Christine Taylor and Ron Silver as “Ron Silver,” we learn the truth about man and motorcycle.

Tonight’s Lopetop Theater was made possible by the generous sponsorship of Top Brass Dandruff Cream, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola.

Technorati Tags: Lucia Pamela, Rod Brickman, Television, Heat Vision and Jack, Jack Black, Jack White, Ron Silver, Panasonic, Coca Cola, Jimmie Walker, Ben Stiller, Barbara Feldon

Today’s links of interest:

• AT&T leaks sensitive info in NSA suit
  Break ‘em up again!!!
• Pirates in High Places
  When even the President of the United States breaks the law — as evidenced by the music on his iPod — then maybe it’s time to rethink said law?
• A black(out) eye for baseball
  Baseball’s television blackout rules are in serious need of an update. Unfortunately it’s not likely to happen any time soon.

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Today’s links of interest:

• Appeals Court Explains To Apple That Bloggers Are Journalists Too
  Seriously, that’s why they give us press passes. Of course we’ve only really ever used ours at the French Embassy, and they’ll accept just about anything there.
• AllofMP3 is illegal, says music industry
  Of course they would say that. The surprising news here is that AllOfmp3 is second only to iTunes in the UK.
• Web retailer sells downloads for musicians
  It’s like Air Guitar crossed with karaoke crossed with the modern world. Only works with Windows Media Player — someone else will have to test drive.

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